Not on view
Date
1932
Classification
Prints
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet (Irregular): 10 × 14 3/16in. (25.4 × 36 cm) Plate: 6 3/8 × 11 15/16in. (16.2 × 30.3 cm)
Accession number
82.43.1
Edition
Proof E | 2 Proofs, Third state
Publication
Printed by Reginald Marsh
Credit line
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Katherine Schmidt Shubert Bequest
Rights and reproductions
©Estate of Reginald Marsh/Art Students League, New York/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
API
artworks/4507
At the height of the Depression, Reginald Marsh produced works such as Bread Line–No One Has Starved. The print depicts a procession of destitute men as they waiting in resignation for public assistance. Crammed into a narrow pictorial space, with little distinction among them, the men represent poverty rather than the effects of poverty on individuals. Although Marsh no doubt had compassion for the poor, this collective typecasting turns the bread line into yet another element in the metropolitan landscape, different only in mood from the movie theaters, beaches, railcars, burlesque shows, and dance halls that pervade Marsh’s art.